La Petite Plage

 

 

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Petite Plage, 1926, etching and engraving, signed in pencil lower left [inscribed lower margin as a trial proof; also with initials and date in the plate]. Reference: S. Laboureur 327, third state (of 3), from the total printing of about 91. In generally good condition, with a mark (probably in the paper) upper left just above the plate mark (also a few light staining spots well away from image, printed on an old laid (ledger?) paper, the full sheet with wide margins, 5 x 6 3/8, the sheet 9 x 13 1/2 inches.

A very good impression of this rather interesting beach scene, with two women apparently exhausted after their tennis match resting at the left, children playing in the middle, and other beachgoers towards the right of the composition and on a porch on the house in the background.  Very fine, subtle engraved (or possibly drypoint) lines are used to create shading effects on the figures, the clouds, the rooftops.